"Signal clear, doors closed, time to depart!"

From the driver's cabin on the high-speed train bound for Lanzhou, in northwest China's Gansu Province, Losong Tsering makes the final departure announcement in fluent Mandarin and masterly drives away from Xining Railway Station in northwest China's Qinghai Province.

He can hardly remember how many times he's uttered these words in last two years at work, but he clearly recalls the excitement of sitting behind the wheels of a high-speed train for the first time in 2017. "That was a very complicated feeling, excitement, nervousness. It was a dream coming true for me," Losong said.

Twenty years ago, Losong had no idea what he wanted to do, and had never thought about becoming a train driver. He was born in a remote area of Chamdo City in Tibet Autonomous Region, where people rely heavily on herding and agriculture. Due to the area's harsh geographical conditions, locals rarely get other work opportunities. Losong knew nothing about trains as a child.

"My family and I didn’t even know what a train was before," he said, adding that his longest trip back then was from his home to the town.

But things began to change in 1995.

It was the year when Losong stepped out of Chamdo for the first time, as the central government was sending Tibetan students from remote areas to inland schools for free. He was selected to study in Wuhan City, the capital of central China's Hubei Province.

The trip from his hometown to Wuhan was unforgettable, as it lasted four days and involved a coach, ship and airplane. When Losong arrived to his destination, his excitement was already consumed by the long trip, but it also made him realize the importance of convenient transportation.

Eight years later, after graduating from the Railway Mechanical School in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Losong went on to work for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company as a train attendant. "My career goal was still unclear until the Qinghai-Tibet railway was launched in 2006, and then I decided to be a train driver," he said.

It's not easy to gain the train driver's licenses as they not only involve performing complex operations, but also require fluent and accurate Mandarin skills to effectively communicate with the command center. 

However, for Losong, who grew up in a remote area of eastern Tibet, language was the biggest barrier. In addition to learning basic train operations, he spent a good chunk of his time honing his Mandarin skills.

"I read newspapers every day, spoke it loudly and recorded it to check, sometimes I would ask my wife and friends to correct my pronunciation," Losong said.

In 2005, he finally passed the exam and gained his first train driver license. "At first, I assisted the main driver to operate a diesel-powered freight train from Xining to Golmud," Losong said. "The cabin was noisy, smelly and terribly crowded."

After passing another qualification exam, Losong started driving an electric locomotive in 2015. The well-equipped cabin impressed him. "It was much more comfortable than the diesel locomotive's cabin. We had a microwave oven, a refrigerator and an air conditioner," Losong told CGTN. "Most importantly, it was much faster than diesel locomotives."

Soon he started enjoying the speed.

"The high-speed train is faster than electric trains, so I took it as my next career goal," he said.

And he did it. Through strict written examination and practical operations, 38-year-old Losong became the only Tibetan high-speed train driver in 2017, making his family proud.

"Although my parents could not tell the exact type of train I drove, they knew that the white car (high-speed train) was faster than the blue and green (diesel and electric locomotive), and they were very proud of me," he said.

"If it weren't for the Qinghai-Tibet railway, I would probably still be looking after yaks and sheep like the older generation in my hometown," Losong said. 

"I know that more and more young people from my hometown are joining the railway system to fulfill their dreams. I hope everyone's dreams come true and they get better lives, Tashi delek!"

(Video filmed by Xu Haoming, Liang Si and Chen Yong, edited by Liang Si)